I Run

So I raced (or tried to race) Clarence deMar in Keene, NH on 9/24. Ouch. I thought I was in good shape, but maybe not. Or it just wasn't my day. In any case, I came in at 3:39:11, which is just a few seconds away from my Cape Cod time last year. And that race hurt, too. Maybe autum marathons just aren't my thing. The Clarence deMar course is absolutely beautiful for the first half, where you run essentially downhill from Gilsum to Keene. I was running between 7:30 and 8:00 pace. But my legs just weren't quite...right. I felt a brief cramp in my hamstring just before the halfway point. Uh-oh. Then over the next few miles the cramps built up until they threatened to seize both my legs if I pushed the pace. So I had to slow down. I stopped at every water station from the beginning, taking plenty of both water and Gatorade. I know I was well hydrated and well nourished before the race. The weather conditions were OK, albeit somewhat humid. And other than the cramps in my legs, I felt fine. I tried to go faster, but each time I tried my left calf would squeeze shut, sometimes forcing me to halt immediately to massage it. So I shuffled to the finish, definitely not the ending I envisioned. But still, I finished another marathon, and I know I'll keep doing them despite saying "never again" toward the end. I think, though, I will not do a spring marathon (maybe) and focus on recovery and training for a fall marathon next year.